Refrigerated display cabinets are widely used in supermarkets and the like for storage and display of refrigerated and frozen food items. These cabinets typically include one or more hingedly mounted, swinging insulated glass doors, these doors effecting insulated closure of the cabinet and affording ready selection of food items in the cabinet by a shopper.
So that the glass doors of the display cabinet are not inadvertently left open, and in order to effect sealing engagement of the doors with the door frame of the cabinet, each door is preferably provided with a self-closing arrangement for biasing the door toward a closed position. However, because there are certain instances during which it is desirable for the door to be maintained in an open position, such as during stocking of the display cabinet shelves or during maintenance, the provision of a hold-open mechanism for overriding the self-closing arrangement of the door is a particularly desirable feature.
In the past, self-closing arrangements have typically included one or more spring-loading mechanisms associated with the upper and lower hinge assemblies of the door. Hold-open mechanisms for doors of this type usually have included an abutment member movably mounted on the door frame which is adapted to positively engage and abut a portion of the door when it is in its opened position to prevent it from closing.
While spring-loading, self-closing mechanisms of the above type have proved effective in providing this function, hold-open mechanisms as described have several drawbacks. Specifically, should the door of the refrigerated cabinet be inadvertently moved toward its closed position while being maintained in its opened position by the hold-open mechanism, the nature of the non-yielding, positive engagement of the door with the mechanism may result in damage to the door or the mechanism. At the worst, the insulated glass of the door may be broken, this result of course being extremely undesirable.
Thus, the provision of a hold-open mechanism which is adapted to maintain the door of the refrigerated cabinet in an opened position when desired, yet which is self-releasing so as to automatically disengage the door when the door is moved with sufficient force would provide a significantly improved arrangement for holding the doors open when desired. Additionally, the incorporation of such a hold-open device in a self-closing mechanism for the door would provide a single operating mechanism which would provide both of these desired functions.